Blue Notes from a Red Zone

The Homeless Among Us

For those of you who don't live in our area - this column of mine was featured as the section front of the Commentary section in the Northwest Florida Daily News last Sunday.

Phillip is in his mid-40s, and has been homeless for more years than he can remember. He works odd jobs for various residents and businesses on the Island, doing landscaping, home and building repair, and some construction. He’s neat, tidy and works hard, and his clients depend upon him because he is dependable. Weekends you will find him at meal programs; on cold nights you will find him taking shelter at a church. Unlike many long-term homeless persons, Phillip does not use alcohol or drugs to soften life on the streets. He doesn’t say why he is homeless, other than to allude to obligations he has to others that prevent him from saving enough for security deposits, first month rents, and other expenses associated with finding permanent housing.

Manuel, a hotel housekeeper in his 60s, has been homeless for about two years. He feels fortunate to work in a hotel, where he can shower and wash his clothes each day. He especially liked his job when it allowed him to buy a trailer, which he kept on a rented lot near the Sound. However, when Ivan tore through the area, he lost everything. A few weeks ago, he was clearly stressed. The hotel was short-handed, which meant he had more rooms to clean. The forecast called for rain, and he was afraid he was going to lose one of the few dry spots available to homeless men if he didn’t get off work fast enough.

Sarah had a different story. Bridgeway Center, Inc. case managers found her when she was 16, after she had been homeless for three years with her mother who was injured in an abusive marriage. Sarah is a bright young woman, who had always maintained good grades. However, she had become depressed. Her grades were falling, since daylight was the only light she could use when doing school work. With winter coming, the daylight hours got shorter, and her time for schoolwork became desperately limited. The family is housed now, but their ability to maintain housing is precarious at best.

These are real homeless people (with fictitious names) who are using our parks, libraries, and sidewalks. They are there, because there is no other place for them to be. We have no alternative sites for them; no place where they can go to get job training, wash their clothes, store their things, cash a check, save their money, or sleep at night on a regular basis. Some homeless fall into despair, or are mentally ill, and use alcohol and illicit drugs as cheap ways to dull the pain of their existence or quiet the voices in their head. Others maintain dignity and never give up the struggle. Many others are women and children without hope.

Our business community and local governments shake their heads of the homeless in our midst, but declare there is nothing they can do about it. “We can’t afford it,” they say. “No one will agree to raise taxes to help homeless people.”

However, the fact is that we are already paying premium dollars to “manage” the homeless population. We use police and sheriff’s deputies to serve as intake officers; the courts as case managers; and the local jail, crisis stabilization unit and detoxification centers as our homeless shelters. One local judge said that 35% of the people he saw at first appearance were arrested primarily for the “crime” of being homeless: of using bathrooms in convenience stores where they made no purchase, or loitering in front of businesses that have registered with the police as being off-limits to homeless (which is nearly all of them). A rough guess, based on a study of the county budget and conversations with various officials, is that we are paying about $4 million per year for a very ineffective method of dealing with homeless issues. This doesn’t count plans for a new jail, which might not be needed if there was a better way to work with the homeless in our area.

Running the homeless out of town is not a realistic option. They have the same constitutional right to life and liberty as do the rest of us. And there aren’t enough bus tickets in the world to stop the flow of homeless into and out of our area. The homeless, like the poor, are with us, and it is our responsibility, as citizens and government leaders charged with the public safety and welfare, to form a partnership among state and local governments, businesses, non-profits and religious organizations to bring solutions to the people who need them.

posted by Lenore Wilson @ 7:35 PM